When British broadcaster BBC aired actress Jodie Whittaker's final outing as the Thirteenth Doctor in the hit science-fiction drama Doctor Who on October 23, audiences were hooked on who Whittaker's iteration of the character would regenerate into during the final scenes of "The Power of the Doctor". What had merely been rumors beforehand became a shocking reality when Whittaker regenerated and standing in her place was David Tennant, previously the Tenth Doctor, now delighting audiences in his first scene as the fourteenth iteration of the famous time-travelling hero. Talking about his exciting return to Doctor Who on ITV's British Chat-Show This Morning on December, 8, Tennant revealed how he had some trepidations before stepping back into the role.
Asked, "What did it feel like to be back?" Tennant replied to This Morning's hosts saying, "It was like being handed a very lovely present. It was joyous. It was great fun. It was a very happy joyous time on set 15 years ago, and returning to that could've been - might've felt awkward, it might have felt difficult. I might not have been able to run as fast..." However, it became clear quite quickly that Tennant's reservations were folly, he continued his remarks by saying, "We had a lovely time. Russell T Davies is back running the show, it felt like we'd never been away... That's all you're getting!"
Tennant first appeared as the Tenth Doctor in the Season One finale of Doctor Who's modern revival in 2005, inheriting the role from Christopher Eccleston. Tennant went on to star in nearly fifty episodes as the Doctor under returning showrunner Russell T Davies, regenerating in "The End of Time: Part Two" on January 1, 2010, handing the role over to Matt Smith. Prior to Tennant's sensational return in "The Power of the Doctor," he starred alongside Smith in the show's 50th Anniversary Special, "The Day of the Doctor." Tennant's return stint to the show will see him as the Fourteenth, not the Tenth Doctor, a first for the show, which has made a habit of regenerating the character with a new face. Will Fourteen be a carbon copy of Ten, or will Tennant take the iconic character in a direction he hasn't before? Audiences will have to wait until November 2023 to find out, but Tennant's chat on This Morning hints that Doctor Who is set to rekindle the magic made when he and Davies collaborated on the series the first time around.
David Tennant returns to Doctor Who as the Fourteenth Doctor in the show's 60th Anniversary Special in the fall of 2023 and two further specials, before handing over the reins to the Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa, who is currently filming his run of episodes that will begin during the 2023 festive period. Tennant will be joined in the special by Catherine Tate, Neil Patrick Harris, Yasmin Finney and the late Bernard Cribbins.
Watch Tennant's interview on ITV's This Morning below, where not only does he talk about his lead role in the new drama Litvinenko, but his joyous return to Doctor Who (which you can catch from the six-minute mark).